Sr. SDET/Performance Engineer

Job Description

Client seeks a senior level SDET/Performance Engineer to lead and execute automated web performance and load testing for PTAS (Property Tax Administration System) and to provide shared support for high impact county systems with peak load risk, including Mid Term Elections (2026), Metro M5(Rider facing transactions), Metro Yard Management(vehicle operational workflows), JHS eMAR (clinical medication administration records), TRUECredentials (identity/credential verification flows), and PAO(Prosecuting Attorney Office) Civil Matter Case Management. The resource will design realistic, secure, and repeatable large scale tests; analyze cross layer bottlenecks (app/API, data, network/F5, Azure); and drive remediation with County teams to ensure citizen facing service reliability under peak demand.

Work Description:

1. Lead Performance Engineering: Manage the end-to-end performance testing process, from establishing baseline reports during development to lead-testing system capacity under peak loads.
2. Performance Baseline Reports (During Development & Unit Testing)
3. These reports establish expected response times, throughput, and resource utilization under normal conditions. They serve as a benchmark for future comparisons and help developers identify regressions early.
4. Load and Stress Test Results (During System Testing)
5. These deliverables simulate varying levels of user traffic to evaluate how the application performs under peak load and beyond capacity. They help uncover scalability issues, memory leaks, or infrastructure limitations.
6. Bottleneck Analysis and Recommendations (During Integration & Pre-Production)
7. Detailed diagnostics pinpoint slow database queries, inefficient code paths, or misconfigured servers. This analysis includes actionable insights for tuning application and infrastructure components.
8. Continuous Performance Monitoring Dashboards (During Deployment & Maintenance)
9. Integrated with CI/CD pipelines, these dashboards provide real-time visibility into performance trends across builds and environments. They support ongoing optimization and ensure SLAs are consistently met post-deployment.
10. Technical Authority: Lead the design and execution of high-scale orchestration (simulating 250,000 concurrent users) and the technical approach for bypassing MFA in automated environments.

Candidate Qualifications:

1. Proficiency in Performance Testing Tools (5+ Years of Experience)

Must have mastery of these tools to simulate realistic user loads, configure test scenarios, and generate actionable performance metrics.

Must have Key Skills:

Apache JMeter

StressStimulus

Azure Test Cloud

BlazeMeter

2. Strong Programming and Scripting Abilities (8+ Years of Experience)

Custom scripting experience is required.

Key Skills:

C#, Python, JavaScript

Expectations

1. Strategy & Planning

System specific Performance Test Strategy and Master Test Schedule covering PTAS plus Elections, Metro M5/Yard, JHS eMAR, TRUECredentials, PAO. (Update quarterly.)

Pre test readiness checklist (data, identities, quotas, observability, rollback).

1. Test Assets & Automation

Author/maintain scripts/configs in Azure Load Testing (Azure Test Cloud) and one of K6/JMeter/Gatling for top workflows; parameterize data; model ramp profiles and failover.

Build synthetic/anonymized datasets; provision non prod test identities under Security/IAM approved guardrails (no production MFA changes).

1. Scale Execution & Reporting

Run controlled peak load tests; deliver run report 5 business days post execution; publish RCA + remediation plan 7 business days for defects; update dashboards.

1. Cross Layer Troubleshooting & Remediation

Diagnose bottlenecks across application/API, DB/cache, F5 (VIPs/pools/iRules), and Azure (autoscale/quotas); open/track remediation tickets to closure.

1. Readiness Certificates

Issue system readiness sign off with thresholds met (response times, error rates, throughput, resilience/failover).

1. Knowledge Transfer

Maintain evergreen runbooks/playbooks (operations, troubleshooting, incident response); store in County repository.

Qualifications

1. Proficiency in Performance Testing Tools (5+ Years of Experience)

Must have mastery of these tools to simulate realistic user loads, configure test scenarios, and generate actionable performance metrics.

Must have Key Skills:

• Apache JMeter
• StressStimulus
• Azure Test Cloud
• BlazeMeter

2. Strong Programming and Scripting Abilities (8+ Years of Experience)

Custom scripting experience is required.

Key Skills:

• C#, Python, JavaScript
• Shell scripting
• Regular expressions
• Data parameterization and correlation

3.Deep Understanding of Web Architecture and Protocols (8+ Years of Experience)

Resource must have a solid grasp of how web applications function, and experience in designing accurate test scenarios and diagnosing performance issues at the network, server, or application layer.

Key Skills:

• HTTP/HTTPS
• RESTful APIs
• WebSockets
• Browser rendering and caching behavior
• DNS, CDN, and load balancing

4. Experience with CI/CD and DevOps Integration (5+ Years of Experience)

Must have experience integrating performance tests into the CI/CD pipeline.

Key Skills:

• Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps
• Docker and Kubernetes
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Test automation frameworks

5. Analytical Thinking and Monitoring Tool Proficiency (5+ Years of Experience)

Must have analytical skills and familiarity with monitoring tools to help identify bottlenecks, correlate metrics, and provide actionable insights for optimization to the County.

Key Skills:

• Grafana, Prometheus
• New Relic, Dynatrace, AppDynamics
• Log analysis (e.g., ELK stack)
• Root cause analysis

6. Occasional after-hours testing is required

• Testing hours 8pm PT to 10 pm PT
• After hours testing will still be within the 40 hours per week work schedule.